Team India finishes 2016 as the only undefeated Test side

Team India’s comprehensive unbeaten run under the leadership of Virat Kohli has extended to 18 Test matches as they handed England a thrashing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, beating them by an innings and 75 runs to win the five-match series 4-0.

This win helped Kohli sealed a fifth success series win and enter the record book by breaking the record with its 18th match without a defeat overtaking Sunil Gavaskar’s unbeaten streak of 17 Tests which dates way back in September 1985 and March 1987. Speaking of 2016, with a record of 9 wins and 3 draws in 12 Tests, India ends the year as the only unbeaten team in the world.

They last lost a Test in August 2015, to Sri Lanka in Galle by 63 runs. Since then, they have rebounded from that defeat in the series opener to beat Sri Lanka 2-1, South Africa 3-0 at home, West Indies 2-0 away, New Zealand 3-0 at home and now England 4-0.

On the contrary to India’s record, England ends as the team with the most number of losses having lost 8 matches and managing just 6 wins out of the 17 Tests. Their record could have been satisfactory had they managed to come out with a better performance against India in the just concluded series where they lost 4 matches on the trot.

Bangladesh who played just 2 Tests end with a fifty – fifty record with one win and one loss and sit under India on the list. South Africa, who overwhelmed Australia in their own backyard recently, stands third on the list with 4 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws out of the 8 matches they played in 2016. Sri Lanka also had a fabulous year scoring 5 wins and just 2 losses and drawn games respectively out of 8 matches.

The only surprising entry in the bottom six happens to be Australia as they were able to manage just 4 wins in the 10 Tests they played this year while registering 6 losses. This terrible run brought a lot of criticisms for the Kangaroos.